VALUE OF NATIVE TREES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 152, 16 March 1918, Page 2

VALUE OF NATIVE TREES

Sir,—lt is well that there is someone in this country who has interested himi self in tho native vegetation and has shown what can bo done by it in affording shelter. Your calling attention to an article on the "Utilisation of Native Trees and Shrubs for Shelter and Ornamental, Trees," by Mr. J. Orcliiston, should show to the . people .of., this., district at all events that we have at our doors quite as handsome and far more suitable trees than the greater number of foreign ones imported by nurserymen^ J. had quite forgotton, until my attention was called to the fact by one who know of it, that at what was known as Donald's tea gardens at Karori there was a splendid hedge of totarn trees that had been planted by the then proprietor, Mr. Donald. It would bo interesting to know whether that hedge jor any portion of it still remains. ' _ Mr. Orchiston is quite right in stating that thero aro a number of native plants well suited for shelter, and 1 may add to those he has mentioned the various species of hoherias, plagianthus betulenius, karaka, (Corynocarpus levigata), tuinhunia serrata, and acutifolia, handsome in flower and leaf, especially in autumn. I havo lately seen some seedlings of a manuka found in another district, which will make tho best shelter hedge up to 12 to 20 feet high. It grows dense from the very bottom, ami in as poor soil that could ever be wished for. It is a rapid grower, and has the greater advantage of being so slender in its growth that no injury is .sustained by it in windy pkces. So far as tho taupata answers for a hedgo, I fear that it is doomed, unless grown under influence of tho salt l air and moisture from the sea, as' it _is being vory badly attacked by a species of mealy bug. Another drawback to it is tho roots spread to a considerable distance and rob tho soil of its nourishment, so that plants grown not less than 6 to 10 feet away do no good. Olearia Fowsteri, ake-ake, is much affected with a leaf disease, which in ,time I am afraid will mako it useless as a hedge. The advantage of such plants at the Quintinnias and Weiuniannias is that they are upright intheir growth, so take up little room, besides very pretty when in flower. Resides shrubs for ornamental purposes, how seldom is the toi grass (Anindo conspiena) seen?. Certainly not in the Botanical Gardens. Other ornamental grasses (call them plants') are the various snecies.of golmias. These are much like tho toi in leaf, but have handsome panicles of a brown colour; these also are never seen in cultivation. The variety of Cordyline Banksi, one of tho Eo-called cabbage trees, is ignored, yet when in flower is finer than any. When in Christchuroh a number of years ago I was in Adams' and Son's nurserv on the East Belt. There I saw the cabbage tree (Cordyline Australia) grown in a manner I have not seen since. It appears that Mr. Adams procured the longest and straightest stems that he could, then split them down the middle, and cut a nick in the bark at such intervals as he wished. He then laid the stems end to end, flat side (tow- an( l snnots stiirte( l (lpvc'°Ping into stems. Tt was a simple and easy wav, especially where the trees were not plentiful. Are any of these to he seen, on the Town Belt—toi-toi, fia-x (Phormium tonax), etc.—\Vny? Some other time I may give a list ot native trees infinitely more worth growing than the wretched stuff that is nlanted on the IWt.—l am. etc., planted pIIELTER PLANTS. March 15, 1018.